Soumya murder accused charged under MCOCA

Delhi Police have filed a charge sheet against the five accused in television journalist Soumya Viswanathan’s murder.All the five accused — Ravi Kapoor, Ajay Sethi, Amit Shukla, Baljit Malik and Ajay Kumar — have also been booked under Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA).

Delhi Police have filed a charge sheet against the five accused in television journalist Soumya Viswanathan’s murder.All the five accused — Ravi Kapoor, Ajay Sethi, Amit Shukla, Baljit Malik and Ajay Kumar — have also been booked under Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA).

The police have also submitted a list of 60 prosecution witnesses in the 620 pages of chargesheet with a city court. The vacation court of Metropolitan Magistrate Munish Markan took cognizance of the chargesheet and issued warrants for the appearance of the accused before the regular court on June 25.

According to the charge sheet, the bullet recovered from Viswanathan’s body matches with the bore of the gun recovered from the accused.

“This is the most concrete evidence in the case,” said a police official on the condition of anonymity, as he is not authorised to speak to media.

Forensics report in the bullet shot and dent on Viswanathan’s car is still awaited. The police will file these reports along with the supplementary chargesheet.

Describing the sequence of events, the police said Kapoor, Shukla, Malik and Kumar, who were in a Maruti Wagon R car, spotted Viswanathan in her Maruti Zen car on Nelson Mandela Marg between 3.15 a.m. and 3.25 a.m.

“Ravi was driving the car. Amit and the others in the car asked him to intercept Soumya’s car, as she could be carrying money and other articles with her. They approached the car and waved at her to stop,” the police charge sheet said.

The police said the three men poked fun at Ravi Kapoor as he failed to stop the victim’s car. He then immediately accelerated his car and went parallel to the victim's car.

“He asked Amit, who was sitting on the front seat, to roll down his window, as he wanted to shoot at the girl,” the police said.

“Ravi took out his country made pistol and shot at her,” official added. As a result Viswanathan lost control at the wheels and her car collided with the road divider.

The accused went straight ahead and took a U-turn and came back to steal money and other articles from her. “But the accused saw two people and a police van rushing towards her car and immediately fled from the spot,” said the police in the charge sheet.

HGS Dhaliwal, Deputy Commissioner of Police, South District, claimed the police have “strong evidence” against the accused.

“We have recovered the vehicle used to carry out the crime and phone records that show they were near the murder spot,” he said.